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Cancer, breast

Feature: Prevention and treatment of lymphoedema

If someone has lymphoedema, their arm or leg may become swollen due to a build-up of lymph fluid in the tissue. This often happens when lymph vessels are damaged during surgery or radiotherapy. The condition is common in women who have had breast cancer treatment. In our fact sheet you can read about the typical signs of lymphoedema, as well as the treatment and prevention options.

Research summaries

Advanced breast cancer: Can bisphosphonates prevent broken bones?

Women with breast cancer that has spread to the bones can reduce their risk of broken bones by taking bisphosphonates. It is not known, though, whether one particular bisphosphonate medication is better than others. more...

Advanced breast cancer: What effect does group therapy have?

Joining a group therapy programme could improve the emotional wellbeing of women with advanced breast cancer. But the benefit lasts for only a few months. more...

Breast cancer: What treatments have been shown to offer relief for lymphoedema after breast cancer?

Self-management with compression bandaging can help reduce lymphoedema after breast cancer. Professional manual lymphatic drainage might help as well. Because lymphoedema often gets worse and harder to treat over time, early recognition of the problem is important. more...

Evaluation of international guidelines: Breast cancer

New developments in breast cancer treatment for women, including a special kind of antibody therapy, could play a role in the upcoming revision of the German disease management programme for breast cancer. more...

Family medical histories: How accurate are they and what information might be important to know?

When someone in the family has breast cancer, it is likely that many of the other adults in the family will know about it. But this does not hold true for all types of cancer. If a family member has developed bowel cancer, for example, it is quite common for the other family members to not know anything about it. It is not clear whether or not preparing a cancer family medical history will improve health outcomes, nor is it apparent what the best way is to collect the information. more...